"The problem was that I hadn't been training like an Olympian but I was still expecting high-performance results and that just doesn't happen," said the Queenslander, who had previously spent plenty of time training alongside beach sprinters.

"It's like any career - if you don't put the work in, there's a 99 per cent chance you won't get the results."

Fitter, faster and more flexible than ever before after a full off-season of training, Stubbs smashed his 100m personal best with a flying effort of 10.27 in Brisbane in November.

He has already lowered that PB twice this year with runs of 10.24 and 10.23 and now has the Rio Olympic qualifying mark of 10.16 firmly in his sights heading into Saturday's IAAF World Challenge meet in Melbourne.

Clarke has already bettered the Olympic qualifier, but he will sit out the Melbourne meet due to a strained hamstring.

The 100m field at Lakeside Stadium boasts a distinct Stawell flavour, including three former Gift winners in Stubbs, Josh Ross and Mitchell Williams-Swain.

Stubbs has also entered the 200m where he will come up against Alex Hartmann, who bettered the Olympic standard last month in Canberra.

Other feature events include the men's 800m, where the presence of world record holder and Olympic champion David Rudisha from Kenya should help drag Australians Luke Mathews, Joshua Ralph and Alex Rowe through to fast times.

Rising Australian star Damien Birkinhead will take on big Kiwi Tommy Walsh in the men's shot put, while in-form local duo Anneliese Rubie and Morgan Mitchell square off in the women's 400m.